496 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



of the walk of two bipeds, in order to determine the general relation which they 

 maintain as a whole. Nevertheless, it is possible to ameliorate, in a great meas- 

 ure, these defects. Nothing prevents, for example, the representation of the 

 contacts and the elevations of the right members by the continuous or the heavy 

 lines, and those of the left by the dotted lines. In addition, it is easy to differ- 

 entiate the notations of the fore- and the hind-bipeds by simply modifying the 

 width of the tracings or lines which correspond to them. This is precisely the 

 procedure which M. Marey has employed with success to facilitate the reading 

 of the tracing of the mode of progression. 



As to the smallness of the diagram, it cannot pass beyond certain limits 

 without danger of resulting in confusion of the imprints of the trail, especially 

 when those of the hind-foot are in front of or behind those of the fore-foot. 

 This, however, is more a typographical defect, and of little importance as regards 

 the correctness of the theory itself or its originators. 



Synthetic Study of the Mode of Progression. 



The generalization of the materials collected by the diverse analytical methods 

 which we have passed in review, their reconstruction into a unit, their relations, 

 and the reproduction of these facts into a material form in a manner to give to the 

 mind, at first greatly confused, the actual reality, such is the difficult problem 

 which constitutes the synthesis of the modes of progression or the gaits. 



Each analytical process offers its corresponding synthetical process. 



To the results of direct observation are contrasted, first, the efforts made by 

 artists to represent the horse by design, painting, and sculpture; also those 

 whose object is to simulate experimentally the rhythm of the beats ; finally, 

 those which propose to retrace, with the eye, the imprints left upon the ground 

 by the feet. 



With the results furnished by instantaneous photographs are combined the 

 diverse forms of animators, in which are placed the photographs themselves or 

 simply the designs which are reproduced from them. 



Finally, to the results given by the registering apparatus correspond special 

 instruments, demonstrating the notations of the gaits or the series of transitions 

 which show the passage from one to another. 



Let us examine each of these processes in particular. 



1st. Artistic Processes : Design; Painting; Sculpture. It suffices to 

 pass through museums and expositions to assure ourselves of the errors of ancient 

 as well as modern artists in the exact representation of the movements of the 

 horse. This animal is nearly always posed in false attitudes and in conditions 

 of impossible equilibrium. If he is depicted moving at a walk, the members are 

 placed in the position which they assume in the amble or the trot ; if he is rep- 

 resented at the gallop, the artist only succeeds in producing a spurious attitude 

 which is neither rearing nor leaping. If he is stopped on two members, the 

 chances are it will be on two lateral bipeds, on which station cannot exist, rather 

 than upon a diagonal biped, which is the more accurate. Finally, even when 

 the general movement is correct, the fault in reality lies in the details : thus, one 

 foot is so placed that it cannot be elevated in time ; another is too slow in ar- 

 riving on the ground ; again, it is the axis of the body which conflicts with the 

 direction of the members; finally, it is that of the neck or of the head. We 

 should never come to the end if we passed in review the long series of errors of 



